Predicting Police Job Satisfaction and Turnover Intentions: The role of social support and police organisational variables.

The retention of operational staff, particularly females, within the police services and other male-dominated occupations, has received some recent attention. The introduction of organisational practices which aim to reduce inter-domain conflict, is a current intervention employed to reduce turnover levels. The importance of adequate supervisor support is one such intervention and has produced considerable recent interest. This paper tests the influence of organisational variables (sexual harassment) and individual variables (perceptions of social support) upon job satisfaction and turnover criterions, using Structural Equation Modelling (SEM) analysis. Four hundred male and female New Zealand police officers were invited to participate in a longitudinal research project, involving the completion of two questionnaire surveys. The experiences of harassment and the quantity of leave taken were associated with turnover intentions. Supervisor support was a strong predictor of job satisfaction and also an indirect predictor of turnover intentions. Intrinsic job satisfaction was an especially strong direct predictor of turnover intentions, although only within the cross-sectional analyses. The results also support the distinction between the two types of job satisfaction, intrinsic verses extrinsic, in the context of turnover research. The implications regarding the training of police supervisors in order to improve (female) retention levels, are discussed. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]